Push to reverse teacher licensure policy picks up steam in statehouse

Mar. 17, 2014

Written by

Gov. Bill Haslam

What the bill would do

• House Bill 2263/Senate Bill 2047 would prevent the State Board of Education from adopting or promulgating any rule, regulation or policy that grants, renews, advances or restricts a teacher’s license on the basis of standardized test scores of students.

A bill proponents have dubbed the “Educator Respect and Accountability Act” has garnered striking bipartisan support, clearing the Senate Education Committee by a 7-2 vote last week, one day after the House Education subcommittee voted 8-1 to pass its companion bill.

Its arrival came as a response to the State Board of Education adopting a new policy last summer — at Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman’s recommendation — that would link license renewal and advancement to a teacher’s composite evaluation score and student learning gains, both calculated from student test results.

The state board in January agreed to back off from using student learning gains as the sole and overriding reason to revoke a license. Evaluations are to remain a centerpiece.

But because evaluations are based partially on test scores and learning gains on top of subjective in-class observations, the legislation would effectively gut the new teacher licensing policy outright.

“That’s the reason I am bringing this bill — to make sure that action is reversed and to be sure that our teachers and their profession get the respect that it is due,” lead sponsor Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said.

“If a teacher license is based in total, or in part, on standardized test scores, then a teacher at a struggling school has a higher chance to lose his or her license simply by teaching there,” Bell said. “Think about that. … We’re not talking about hiring or firing, but losing what you need to make a living.”

Student gains

Haslam’s administration says it has flagged the bill for “philosophical” disagreements because it would remove student achievement, growth or data “as any factor in the (licensure) decision.”

Stephen Smith, assistant commissioner of policy and legislation at the Tennessee Department of Education, said the department is OK with the move away from student learning gains as the sole factor in licensure decisions.

“What we are not OK with is saying that we will not look at student achievement — period — in any teacher licensure decision. We just feel that if the state is going to issue a license, we have a responsibility to ensure parents and students that they are going to be placed in a classroom with a teacher that has met some minimum bar.”

A Department of Education analysis last year estimated that 95 percent of Tennessee teachers would advance automatically under the new policy. It found that 100 to 200 licenses wouldn’t be renewed each year because of chronically poor teacher evaluation scores.

Current teacher licensure procedures center largely on the Praxis exam, taken by teachers to show knowledge in their subject areas. Adding student achievement as a component marked a shift in approach — one that is now in jeopardy.

Bipartisan support

The legislation heads to the House Education Committee on Tuesday.

Its approval in two committees last week marked the beginning of a rough stretch for Haslam’s education agenda, capped by a stunning 82-11 vote in the House to buck the administration by delaying further implementation of Common Core standards and postponing its companion test.

The teacher licensure bill has attracted backers from the far wings of both parties and has collected 80 co-sponsors in the House. It also has support from the Tennessee Education Association, which this winter withdrew its support of value-added data in evaluations, and the Professional Educators of Tennessee.

“If they would have solicited stakeholder involvement on the front end, I think they could have avoided a whole lot of this,” PET Executive Director J.C. Bowman said.

The issue has made for strange bedfellows — with TEA, the state’s largest teachers union, finding unlikely conservative allies like Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, and others.

“A standardized test is given once a year,” Sen. Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City, said. “With all the variables it could contain, linking that to a license is on the face of it just wrong. It’s just the wrong thing to do.”